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Buying toys for your baby can be a challenge. Since infants grow so fast and at different developmental paces, we want to provide you with toy selections that can grow with your little one to help you get the best value for your purchase. Here are our five favorite toys that grow with your baby:

This activity gym is full of surprises! Use it as a comfy play mat for infants; once children are mobile, simply pull up the mesh sides to keep them in the safe zone. Encourage sensory play as they grow by turning the safe zone into a fun ball pit featuring 40 colored balls. All of these features come in the adorable shape of a turtle!

This safari-themed play gym is adjustable and features a colorful mat for infants as they play with exciting bobbles above. Once your child is able to sit, the gym can be adjusted so that babies have access to the three mesh pockets. Once standing, toddlers can play with the woodland creatures that act as built-in ramps for balls to roll down and exit to the floor. This is one toy children won’t lose interest in!

Teach music to infants as they grow! This activity table can be floor level for easy infant access or adjust to become a piano station, guitar station, drum station, and a shape station. Includes English, Spanish, and French languages giving your little learner variety as their brains develop.

Encourage infants to learn melodies from an early age! Start by placing balls into the holes to practice color coordination and create music as the balls roll across the xylophone. Once children have better developed motor skills, they can use the hammer to tap out melodies on the xylophone. It’s a great way to expose your child to music for the first time and encourage music learning as they grow.

The fun never ends with this rocking wagon! It’s Sit & Play mode allows babies to sit beside the wagon as they stack blocks, spin the clicker, and press the teeter-totter to hear music. As they become more mobile, they can advance to the Stand & Pull mode, which helps develop motor skills as they push and pull around their music wagon full of magical learning!

Regardless of what toy you choose, remember to select toys that provide years of quality learning for all of your child’s developmental stages. Have fun!

Trying to get young children to go to sleep for naptime or bedtime can always be a struggle. Having something as simple as a snuggle buddy can go a long way in expediting the process. If you’re thinking about purchasing the perfect snuggle buddy for your child, we have a four suggestions to give your little one the best plush experience:

2. Pillow or Plush Blanket?

For infants, soft animal mats can be the way to go as they provide the perfect cozy area for babies to enjoy some quality cuddle time while also providing a snuggle buddy! If your baby caters more to a tactile experience, we suggest the soft Buddy Blankets or Sleepy Sshlumpies. Both options are great for providing children soft textures to feel as they fall asleep.

3. Enter the Sleepy Sshlumpies Giveaway!

Don’t miss out on our Sleepy Sshlumpies Giveaway this week on Facebook for your chance to win your choice of three Sleepy Sshlumpies: a fox, a dog, or a bunny. These lush blankets also double as cuddly stuffed animals, making them the perfect companions for naptime. Enter by telling us how you get your baby to fall asleep here.

4. Choose a Special Snuggle Buddy Name:

Once you’ve picked out the perfect snuggle buddy for your child, be sure you help them come up with a name. Naming their animal is a great way to form an attachment and sense of friendship as they learn to settle in for nap time or bedtime with their new friend!

Want to encourage early language skills in your baby? With a few simple adjustments to your play time and a little understanding of early development, your babies will be chattering away in no time! Here are three activities and tools you can use to build language skills in your baby:

1. Bring on the Babbling

Babbling is a baby’s way of attempting communication. There are a few responses you can adapt to progress language learning. It is important to respond consistently to baby’s vocalizations and vary responses by either repeating or changing sounds. Encourage your baby to listen to variations in babbles, whether it’s differences in length, stress, or intonation.

Strong and Weak Babbles: Alternate stressed syllables (louder and longer) such as BAAAA and unstressed syllables (softer and shorter) such as ba to help the baby discern stress differences. You may end up saying things such as BAAba BAAbabaBAA! This gibberish may not sound like much to you, but it is a great listening exercise for the child because real words vary in the way they are stressed. For example, when you say BAA-ba, the stress pattern is the same as in the word DOG-gie. Discerning and tracking strong and weak syllables is crucial for language learning.

2. Talking Through Tech

Believe it or not, your smart phone can help when it comes to language learning in your baby. From letter recognition to understanding sound differences, here is a baby app we think will aid in learning on the go:

3. Learning with Simple Signs.

Sign language is a great tool to encourage early language learning in children as early as six months old. Whenever your baby begins to display a desire to communicate, begin using your hands for words that are often repeated, such as Mom or Dad. Using those hand motions while also putting stress on the word will give babies a visual representation of the language as they learn. Another great word to sign is whatever the child’s favorite toy is, so that children will begin to learn how to ask for what brings comfort through communicating with their hands.

-We hope you found these tips for language learning in babies helpful. Do you have tips for teaching your baby to speak? Let us know by leaving a comment below or commenting on our Facebook page with the hashtag #babyspeak.

As a parent, it can be hard to fit everything in. Between nap times, diaper changes, grocery shopping, and making sure the house is semi-clean, allowing time in your schedule to research ways to keep your baby entertained in the busy moments can be hard. Especially if you don’t have a babysitter lined up! That’s where we can help. With the prevalence of tablets and smart phones, it just makes sense to use available technology as learning resources for babies. Here are 10 baby apps that will not only give you a few moments to breathe as your baby engages in independent learning, but will also foster digital literacy in babies as they learn!

Music Apps:

Do you have a baby Beethoven on your hands? Now you can take the piano wherever you go with Baby Piano! The eight-key piano allows babies to play notes and hear animal sounds as each key has a different animal face on it. Children can also play a nursery rhyme by following lighted keys.

A simple app for simple learning! This app includes six different songs for children to sing along with. Cute animated lyrics accompany each song, sure to stimulate children visually with bright colors and characters.

Early Literacy Apps:

Great for children between one and three, Learn To Talk teaches children vocabulary and early language skills through the use of flashcards. Babies will use both sound and sight for language learning. This app is great choice for bilingual families.

Allow children to practice handwriting skills as they play entertaining games and learn everything from uppercase and lowercase letters to numbers! iWriteWords is a great app to prepare children for preschool.

Critical Thinking Apps:

This is a great app for babies that provides colorful flash cards children will love manipulating to learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and more! The clear and helpful voice will guide babies along as they begin to understand patterns.

Puzzles are always a great way to develop critical thinking skills in little ones! With Tozzle, children can choose from 20 different puzzles to work on shape recognition and motor skills. Bright colors are sure to make it a favorite!

Animal Apps:

Let children learn by taking an adventure! The app offers both English and Spanish learning as babies hear what sound each animal makes. Not only are adorable illustrations included, but babies will also learn the name of each barn animal they see.

With this app, babies can tap the device to hear different animal sounds. With a range of 24 different animals, babies can play and learn as they touch an animal or vehicle to hear its name announced and get a real sound effect! This is a great app for auditory learning.

The Essentials:

Get involved with your baby’s learning by teaching them colors, shapes, letters, and numbers all from your phone! Each digital pack contains different games varying from quizzes, to flashcards, to tracing to make it the perfect educational tool for babies! Reward visuals are a bonus that is sure to keep babies engaged!

Young children are always fascinated by their parent’s phones. Now, they can have their own with the iBabyPhone (with the exception of no accidental calls made!) This app allows kids to dial numbers without actually calling anyone – saying the name of the number when touched. Babies will learn colors, numbers, animals, and more!

-Having second-guesses about how much time your baby should be spending in front of a screen? Learn how to balance digital learning with appropriate screen time in this related blog post “Managing Your Kids’ Screen Time.”

Manipulative and Gross Motor Toys

(Birth & up.) Familiar with the original Winkel™ toys? This versatile set of toys has been updated to include friendly faces! These owl and lion toys are spun into shapes that are easy for baby to grasp! When you chill it in the refrigerator, it becomes a teething toy for older infants. Available as a set, or sold separately (owl & lion). (Set, item #30811, $26.95; $13.95 sold separate)

(6 months & up.) This puzzle ball offers more than just squeakers, clickers, and rattles! It pulls apart to reveal three pieces: a rolling shaker and two activity toys. It helps develop manipulation skills, and it’s easy to put back together. (Item #30036, $14.95)

(18 months & up.) These pull toys offer multiple options for your toddler’s fun! The owl flaps his wings when your toddler pulls him across the floor with soft felt and vibrant details to entertain your child. The Rock & Stack pull toy can be pulled across the floor by the string, or your toddler can move the wheels up and watch the boat rock! The animals can be switched around on board the boat, as well. (Item #s 62719 and 62720, $21.95 each)

Activity Gyms and Tummy Time

(Birth & up.) Offer your baby a colorful and interesting world of investigation and interaction in 3 positions: on their back, on their stomach, and seated upright! With a baby-activated plush monkey (with 3 songs and lights), a tummy time pillow, and washable padded mat, this activity gym provides 18 developmental activities to keep baby active and learning! Batteries not included. (Item #88178, $69.95)

(Birth & up.) If you prefer treetop friends, here is another activity gym for you! This gym features nature-inspired graphics and textures, with a tummy time pillow and birds, an owl, and a squirrel for children to play with, equaling up to 17 different developmental activities to help your baby grow! (Item #62220, $79.95)

(2-6 months.) Baby will have fun exploring the two developmental toys that come along with the Boppy Tummy Time! It features the SlideLine toy adjustment system so toys can be perfectly placed and moved to encourage tummy time fun. (Item #62709, $19.95)

Board Books

(6-24 months.) For the dual language learners out there! Babies enjoy looking at other babies, and these board books are full of baby pictures! The books are easy for little hands to hold–and turning the page helps children develop eye-hand coordination. (Item #62768, $19.95)

(12-24 months.) Step into the magical world of fine art with this set of 4 board books that feature the works of four great artists: Degas, Monet, Matisse, and Van Gogh. These imaginative board books feature their beautiful paintings paired with playful, rhyming text. (Item #62749, $19.95)

Dramatic Play and More

(18 months & up.) Lions and tigers (and bears, oh my!) in your home or classroom! Start your jungle adventures with these fun cape costumes–they’re easy to put on and made from easy-care, machine-washable fabrics. (Also available in horse and dragon options for fairy tale adventures!) (Item #s 30969 and 30971, $31.95 each–temporarily out of stock, but will be back soon!)

(18-36 months.) Your toddler will enjoy the ride in this fun push-around car! They will feel like they are really driving with a working horn to honk and wheel to turn! It includes a safety seat belt. (Item #62750, $43.95)

Let us know what you think! What is your favorite out of these? Which will you use this summer? 🙂

Teach children about colors, sorting, and patterning with this bamboo peg board with 2 different sized pegs for varying degrees of difficulty. Contains 25 large and 25 small pegs in 5 different colors, 3 full-sized activity cards, pegboard, and activity guide. 3 years & up.

This unique stacker has no center post, stacks in any order and contains no BPA, PVC or phthalates.This Stacker is made in the USA from 100% recycled plastic milk containers which save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Packaged using only recycled and recyclable materials and printed with soy inks. 8 nesting pieces. 6 months & up.

Invite friends to a make-believe tea party and brew up an imaginary pot of tea. 17 piece set includes tea pot with lid, sugar and cream bowls, 4 cups and saucers and 4 teaspoons. Made from recycled milk jugs, non-toxic and meets FDA requirements for food contact. 3 years & up.

Bring a bit of nature to the classroom with this whimsical mobile. All-natural from start to finish, this certified organic cotton mobile is eco-friendly and uses only plants and minerals to create a soothing color palette.

With over 95% of the plastic parts made from recycled material, this trike is as eco-friendly as it is unique. The folding frame allows for easy storage and one-button assembly. Features removable rear bucket and multi-position adjustable seat to comfortably accommodate toddlers. Maximum weight 50 lbs. 18 months – 4 years.

For bakers…

Build delicious DUPLO® cakes of all shapes and sizes with the Creative Cakes building set. Share them with your friends at a fabulous tea party! Set includes 2 muffin cups, 3 muffin tops, 3 candles, 2 meringues, flowers, and assorted DUPLO® bricks. The storage box lid can be used as your serving tray! Also includes inspirational building recipes. Set contains 55 pieces. For ages 2 – 5.

For Star Wars fans…

Open the cockpit of the TIE Fighter, place in the pilot and pretend to fight the Rebels using your dual flick missiles! Includes TIE Fighter Pilot, Imperial Officer, Death Star Trooper, R5-J2 Droid, TIE Fighter and 1 blaster. The TIE Fighter features opening cockpit and dual flick missiles. TIE Fighter measures over 9″ tall. 413 pieces. For children 8 – 14 years.

For those who love cars…

Help Red put the fires out that Acer started with his water gun! Set includes vehicles Red and Acer. Features include flick missiles, elevating ladder, welding equipment, and protective glasses. Red measures over 5″ long and Acer measures over 3″ long. 199 pieces. For children 5 years & up.

And even for toddlers…

Illuminate your child’s mind with this LEGO® DUPLO® Creative Sorter set. This set includes an assortment of color-coded basic and rounded DUPLO® bricks. Your child can sort the shapes needed to build a parrot, elephant and giraffe on the blue, yellow and red sorting plates. The sorting plates double as a lid for the sturdy plastic storage box. 23 pieces. For children 18 months – 5 years.

Young minds pretend with this cute starter set that features rabbits, carrots, flowers, house elements, and an assortment of basic DUPLO® bricks in both pink and classic colors. This set comes in a sturdy brick storage box and includes an idea booklet to encourage creative play. DUPLO® products are fun and safe for younger hands. 30 pieces. For children 18 months – 5 years.